The product I have created for this class is the smelly belt. This belt has a little compartment where cologne is stored. When you press the button on the belt, it sprays cologne forward. This is a great function, as you can leave your cologne at home, and leave it all to the belt to take care of your fresh scent. This is great for dates, work meetings, or simply if you need to freshen up after a long day, or if you just went to the gym. You simply spray, and walk forward!
I couldn’t find any similar product to my idea on the internet, so I hyperlinked the product link for a belt, and cologne, the two products I am combining to make my product. The smelly belt is better than carrying around cologne because it is more convenient, and gives the belt an extra feature while looking just as good!
The problem I have chosen to focus on for this assignment is my Dad’s sleep apnea. For those who don’t know what sleep apnea is, it is a sleep disorder that interrupts a person’s breathing while they are asleep. My dad snores really loudly, and often loses his breath, which is extremely dangerous. As a result of this, although he sleeps for about 8 hours a night on average, his body will feel like it is running on 4 hours of sleep. When it is daytime he often falls asleep due to a lack of normal resting hours. He can’t function properly, and if he sits on the couch, he is likely to fall asleep within 5 minutes of doing so. It is not only affecting his nights, but more importantly his days. His family and friends are very concerned for him, and keep pushing him to go see a doctor for this issue. Sleep apnea has a strong correlation to weight, and gender. It is most common for overweight older men which is the category my father is in.
You might think a simple solution to this issue is to see a doctor. My dad works many days and nights as a photographer, and claims he has no time to make an appointment. I think part of him knows getting a sleep study to confirm his apnea is real, is a scary step and a time consuming process. Going in person to a doctor for multiple checkups is just not something he wants to do. I would consider this a real problem and not just an inconvenience because although he can cancel a job to go to an appointment, I feel many people with health issues often push off seeing a doctor, so they don’t have to confront the problem head on. Perhaps, he doesn’t want to be hooked up to a machine every night for the rest of his life. Perhaps going to the doctor is something he has been dreading. I think even after going to a doctor he will be scared, but I can’t design an idea that will fix his apnea without getting medical assistance.
I often got frustrated with my father when he fell asleep in the middle of a conversation, or activity we were doing together. I wanted to gain some insight on how he felt and put myself in his shoes in order to practice my skill of empathy. I went to sleep as normal and set 5 different alarms throughout the night to see how it feels to have interrupted sleep. The next morning I was not functioning as I usually did, and found myself doing tasks at half my normal pace. I obviously could not feel the full effects of sleep apnea with this act I did, but it helped me see his point of view a little clearer. This exercise made me feel somewhat bad for my father, as I would not want to experience any other day or night like that. However I still lack some sympathy because he can make an appointment and work on fixing the issue at hand.
The solution I have decided on for this situation is an easier and faster way of submitting your sleep apnea symptoms. My dad’s busy schedule prohibits him from seeing a doctor in person, so what if there was a website that can intake all of your information regarding sleep apnea? The components needed to perform a sleep study on an individual are heart rate levels, breathing patterns, and the volume at which you snore. My dad can wear an Apple watch and monitor his heart rate levels on the health app and submit that to the doctor as opposed to going to the doctor in person and being hooked up to a traditional heart rate machine. Instead of the doctor observing him in person, he can send in a video of his snoring and the way he breathes while he is asleep. Any other symptoms or health details that need to be shared can be sent as well. I think they can determine if he truly has sleep apnea and if he needs the machine based on these facts alone. I am not a doctor but this is something I believe in. I don’t think this is such a far-fetched idea, as the pandemic made everything we do remote and distant for 2 whole years.
As for the design portion of this assignment I plan to illustrate the entire scene of my dad, or a given test subject submitting sleep apnea results from their house. I will show someone sleeping with a watch with the heart rate showing, as well as a camera in the room which will be capturing the snoring and breathing levels of the test subject. Additionally, I will make closeups of the watch for greater detail, and to show the TinkerCad skills I have learned thus far.
This has been a problem for my father for over a year, and after observing the problem with a closer lens, empathizing with the problem first hand, and designing a prototype solution I have undergone the Design Thinking process. We read about solving the right problems, and I was struggling to recognize if it was his fear of confronting the problem, or actually being hooked up to a machine. I think he is scared of both, but the solution I created almost makes it too hard to come up with any more excuses.
The Apple Watch with the heart rate monitor.
Test subject sleeping with heart rate monitor watch.
After observing my mom and her severe foot pain, and her refusal to go see a doctor, I talked to my friend about a potential solution. I proposed that maybe she would agree to see a physical therapist who can take a look at it. I think she would be more open to this as she hasn’t tried this approach yet, and a friend of her’s knows a very good physical therapist. My friend agreed that this would be the right place to start, but won’t work 100%. I hope that she does go to physical therapy and identify the root of the problem and fix it.
A.) The observation I made last time of my mom on my sister’s wedding day was purely situational stress and not a real problem she has to deal with on a daily basis. I have decided to instead observe my mom who has been complaining about her foot. She says it really hurts, and that every doctor she went to can’t identify the problem. One doctor said it may be an issue connected to her spine, and another said it may be stress related.
B.) This is a real problem she is going through, and she has come to terms it can’t heal, but I told her she has to keep visiting doctors, and maybe do some form of physical therapy.
C.) I was empathetic that she was struggling to walk up and down flights of stairs, and tried staying on only one floor of the house at a time to feel what that constraint felt like.
Blog Post #1: I observed my mom on my sisters wedding day In the morning she was really upset that I woke up late. Then she was annoyed that the wedding pictures were not being taken on time, delaying the schedule. She was most likely overwhelmed on this big day, that most actions going on made her very nervous.
